Jonny Cooper in the dark over looming suspension
The Dublin All-Star defender’s black card in last October’s All-Ireland final replay followed a red card for two yellows against Cork in March and another black card against Mayo in Castlebar in February.
Unless any of the four cards are successfully contested, Cooper is in line to face a cumulative suspension, which can carry into the following league campaign.
But he has “no idea” about the possibility of a ban for the competition opener in Kingspan Breffni Park.
Reviewing his latest black card after being deemed by Maurice Deegan to have hand-tripped Donie Vaughan in the first half, Cooper insists his actions weren’t cynical but “instinctive”, although he acknowledges he “probably left myself open to the rule”. He admits it took some of the shine off his third All-Ireland title.
“It probably does for me. I have my own standards for performance and those sort of things. Coming off after a very short amount of minutes wouldn’t be one of them.
“But if it gives me a drive to clean up... I wasn’t in a great mindset. They had just scored a goal down and I think it happened in the next play or within the next 30 seconds.”
Speaking at the launch of the Allianz League, both Cooper and Kerry’s Donnchadh Walsh gave strong support to the formation of the Club Players Association. Cooper revealed he played just four games with Na Fianna last year. He fully appreciates that isn’t enough.
“I wanted to put my shoulder to the wheel for the club and off the top of my head, I was able to give five weeks, maybe six weeks to the club last year, in terms of actual effort and work and being with the lads.
“The rest was all remote and dialling in, as such, so six weeks over the entire year is not something my club deserve and not something that I want.
“I want to give more to the club, albeit I want to do it with Dublin too, but I do want to give more to the club and probably that work around fixtures and scheduling would help me and many more players.”
